[Randy Larsen]

I have always depended on Hoppes products but lately technology has improved.

What do you use to maintain your weapons?

[jboot]

I have bought space-age rust preventatives for $20 an ounce, and all kinds of miracle cleaning products, etc. Nothing beats Hoppes products for general cleaning. WD-40 works great to protect the bore. I use CLP for lubrication, but Hoppes or Rem-Oil work great.

Probably the only thing that could still stand to be improved is copper solvents. I use Hoppes Copper Solvent, but it is weak as water. Straight ammonia works great but it will peel your eyes and you need to be snappy about cleanup to prevent corrosion.

[DuncanWaring]

For removing copper fouling, there’s a foaming cleaner, “Outers” to the best of my recollection.

Had a can, used it up, and couldn’t find it again.

Better than Gunslick, but Gunslick is also fairly good.

[Uncle Miltie]

I use chunks of deceased Islamonazi beards as cleaning wads.

[old school]

GUNKOUT! It’s expensive but I’ve yet to find a better solvent!

[Mr Rogers]

Hoppes #9. Sometimes RemOil. Johnson’s paste wax on blued guns.

[The KG9 Kid]

After disassembly, I start with Hoppes® #9 for the small parts. I have a tiny glass baby food jar full of Hoppes that all small parts like pins and springs get dropped into to soak while I take care of the bigger hunks:

Bench Rest-9 Copper Solvent for bores fouled by copper jackets, usually longer barrels with fast twist rates.

Gunslick Foaming Bore Cleaner for typical cleaning. I also usually smooth a light coating of this stuff over the external receiver and then let it sit. This stuff is a soap as much as it is a solvent.

After the bore cleaners/solvent soak for awhile according to manufacturer instructions, I blast the stripped barreled receiver with high pressure hot water in the laundry room tub, using water at max temp for a long enough time so that the water is almost completely dried off by the metal's surface temperature. The water is very hot here as the water heater is just a few feet away, so I use kitchen gloves.

I then use a Hoppes® BoreSnake the bore several times, run a dry clean patch down the bore to confirm its clean, and then lube one last patch sopping wet with MP Pro 7 gun oil and push it down the bore twice.

I spot dry the remaining water with compressed air out of the nooks and crannies, and then depending on the firearm finish:

• Spray Birchwood Casey's Barricade® on the external surface metal if the barrel/receiver are blued steel or Parkerized metal.

• Use Brownell's Weapon Wipes® on the external surfaces if they have a painted/CeraKoted/synthetic-type finish.

I then lubricate the internal parts with MP-Pro 7 or BreakFree® out of the pressurized spray can and reassemble after towel/air drying the small parts that have been soaking. Pistol slides get greased with 'Slide Glide' or Weapon Shield grease, whichever I happen to have in my cleaning box.

Polished stainless steel finishes sometimes get re-polished after cleaning with 'Mothers® Metal Polish Mag and Aluminum' using a microfiber terrycloth towel to apply and remove. Nothing in the world beats Mother's for high bright shine on polished smooth stainless steel surfaces.

Lastly, I use a dry clean lint free cloth to remove excess lubricant. The blue steel guns that I don't fire too often, I leave the Barricade on pretty wet and store everything back in the safe with the barrel in an upright position.

I don't have many guns with classic wood furniture, but for those that do I use a more traditional cleaning method rather than the solvent + pressurized hot water treatment I normally use.

[Eaker]

Glocks = dishwasher

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

I first clean with WD-40. Then after I am done, I place the firearm in the hot sun to make it warm, and heat a jar of Petroleum jelly which I then smear all over the metal and down the bore.

Never had rust and when I finally dredge mine up from the deep corner of the lake, where I had my boating accident, I am sure it will still be clean and workable.

For corrosive primers and black powder I first clean with soap and water through the bore, then WD-40 followed by petroleum jelly.

[timlilje]

I got a GLOCK 19. I open the slide and put in on the bottom rack of the dishwasher. Works fine.

[GenXteacher]

Hoppes, and occasionally some WD-40. Sometimes some 3-in-1 oil too.

[CodeToad]

Sweets:

Hoppes #9:

Hoppes #9 Copper:

[CodeToad]

Hoppes oil on the action parts:

Hoppes Benchrest on all other parts inside and out, light coating and wipe down.

[MasterGunner01]

I like RB-17 bore cleaner. It’s a very good crud cutter — lead and copper. Here: http://www.dealerease.net/catalog/product.asp?pid=1002651&ret_id=139995

[Durus]

There are a lot of hyped and over hyped products out so I stick to the basics. Eezox as a solvent and rust preventative. I use VFG pellets and foaming bore cleaners unless I have a copper or lead build up issue then I use solvents specifically for those problems. I use gun butter for guns that like it wet and eezox for guns that like it dry. I can't say enough about Eezox, it's a great product and my wife likes the smell better than Hoppes.

[smokingfrog]

I like the Hoppes Semi-Auto solvent to clean the barrel and use FrogLube on just about everything else, but usually put some synthetic grease on the high wear areas of my ARs.

[US Navy Vet]

I had an AK-47(before the boat accident) that NEVER needed “cleaning”!

[buffaloguy]

One(1)GI issue canteen slowly emptied down the barrel.
One patch to dry.
One patch to confirm cleanliness.
One patch to oil heavily (I am a believer in heavy oil)

I shoot black powder with cast boolits so it is much easier to clean than the jacketed, modern powder stuff. The cleaning takes maybe a minute or minute and a half.

[Liberty Valance]

Hoppes? Yes, the technology has definitely changed ... since we discovered Dierdre!

Dierdre Imus cleans guns good -

She's Clean, Green ... and doesn't mind getting down into the nooks and crannies
no matter what age your firearm is.

She's a little spendy but well worth it ... Just ask Don!

[The Cajun]

Bookmark.

[hockea]

I have used EDTA and acetonitrile dissolved in ethanol for years; stopper the chamber, fill the bore and leave in a very well ventilated area (read outside) WD40 in the morning as the ethanol usually comes from distilled spirits.